Pakistan condemns ‘unprovoked’ Israeli attack on Syria air base

The Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday strongly condemned the “unprovoked” attack carried out by Israel on an air base in Syria, saying such acts had the potential to “further undermine regional peace and stability”.

Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya television, citing a military source, said on Tuesday that Israel carried out eight airstrikes on the runway and storage facilities at the Abu al-Duhur base near Aleppo in northwest Syria. A separate military source and a civilian who lived near the base said there were no casualties.

“Such provocative actions constitute a flagrant violation of international law and have the potential to further undermine regional peace and stability,” the FO said on Wednesday.

“Pakistan expresses its unwavering solidarity with the brotherly people of Syria, and reiterates its full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as peace and prosperity of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the FO said.

Pakistan also called on the international community to play its role in ending repeated violations of international law by Israeli occupation forces and to hold them accountable for their destabilising actions in the region, it added.

US envoy for Syria Tom Barrack said on Tuesday it was confirmed that Israel carried out the strikes on the air base in Idlib province.

The attacks “constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability”, Barrack, a business friend of President Donald Trump who is also ambassador to Turkey, wrote on X.

“We encourage all parties to prioritise logical discourse over further military incidents,” he said.

The strike marked extraordinary defiance by Israel of the United States, which has sought to support Syria’s new government allied with Turkiye.

“Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement after a day of official silence by Israel.

“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” said the statement, which stopped short of acknowledging Israeli responsibility.

Syrian Foreign Minister Assad al-Shibani called for the attacks to stop, saying Israel should recalculate its position toward Syria because it was confronting not only Damascus, but also Syria’s allies.

“These attacks don’t have security justifications … We will continue in our diplomatic path to dissuade Israel from this policy and to force it to stop its attacks on Syria,” he said at a press conference with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi in Damascus.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government slammed Israel’s remarks in a statement on Wednesday quoted by the Anadolu state news agency.

“The frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office aim to legitimise Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” it said.

The base, about 70 km (43.5 miles) east of the Turkish border, has been out of service as a dedicated military airfield since 2013 and changed hands several times during Syria’s 14-year civil war between forces loyal to former president Bashar al-Assad and opposition factions.

Israel has repeatedly struck Syrian forces since Assad was ousted in 2024. It has so far attacked mostly government sites in southern and central Syria, most recently in March.

Additional input from Reuters and AFP